William Wadham (died 1452)

William Wadham (died 1452), detail from his monumental brass in St Mary's Church, Ilminster, Somerset

Arms of Wadham: Gules, a chevron between three roses argent

William Wadham (died 1452) of Edge in the parish of Branscombe in Devon and of Merryfield in the parish of Ilton, near Ilminster, Somerset, was Sheriff of Devon in 1442^[1] and was a member of the Devonshire gentry who is mainly remembered for his monumental brass and chest tomb monument in St Mary's Church, Ilminster, Somerset.

Origins

He was the son and heir of Sir John II Wadham (died 1412) (son), Justice of the Common Pleas (1389–1398) (said by Pole, apparently in error, to have been Justice of the King's Bench), MP for Exeter in 1399 and for Devon in 1401.^[2] Sir John II Wadham was one of Prince's Worthies of Devon.^[3] his mother was Joan Wrothesley the second wife (according to his will) of his father; Maude, by whom he had a son, being the first.^[4]

His father had acquired much land in Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Gloucestershire, which were valued at £82 per annum in an incomplete survey of 1412 and valued at about £115 in his inquisition post mortem in 1412. His Devon landholdings included the manors of Silverton and half the manor of Harberton (both purchased, in 1386 and 1390 respectively, from Cecily Turberville, sister and heiress of John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp of Hatch) (1329–1361)) and Lustleigh and he acquired over 300 acres of land in Branscombe and elsewhere. His landholdings in Somerset were even more extensive than those in Devon and mostly consisted of properties forfeited by Sir John Cary (died 1395), Chief Baron of the Exchequer. These lands included Hardington Mandeville, a moiety of Chilton Cantelo, and premises in Trent (now in Dorset) he purchased jointly with Hankford in 1389. These large landholdings in Somerset appear to have moved his principal interest away from Devon and the manor of Edge, and towards the end of his life he made his principal residence at Merryfield, Ilton, near Ilminster, Somerset, which he had purchased from Cecily Turberville.^[5] At Merryfield he built a substantial fortified manor house, demolished after 1618, of which only the rectangular moat survives today in the middle of agricultural land south of RAF Merryfield aerodrome.^[6]

His sister Margery Wadham was the wife of John Stourton, 1st Baron Stourton (1400-1462) of Stourton in Wiltshire.^[7]

Marriage and progeny

He married Margaret Chiseldon, a daughter and co-heiress of John Chiseldon of Holcombe Rogus in Devon,^[8] also of Anke and Rewe, Sheriff of Devon in 1400.^[9] By his wife he had progeny including:

• Sir John III Wadham, eldest son and heir, who married Elizabeth Popham, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Stephen Popham (c. 1386 – 1444) of Popham, Hampshire, five times MP for Hampshire (of which Popham family another branch was seated at Huntworth, Somerset. (see John Popham (Lord Chief Justice) (c. 1531 – 1607), Speaker of the House of Commons and Lord Chief Justice of England).
• William Wadham, of Catherston Leweston, Dorset,^[10] where he founded a branch of the Wadham family which included John Wadham (c. 1520 – 1584), MP for Melcombe Regis (1553) and Weymouth (1554), Captain of Sandsfoot Castle, Weymouth, whose inscribed brass tablet survives in Whitchurch Canonicorum Church, Dorset.^[11] He inherited Anke from his mother.^[12]
• James Wadham;^[13]
• Elizabeth, wife of Robert Stawel, of Cothelstone;^[14]
• Margaret Wadham, wife of Gilbert Yarde, of Bradley, Newton Abbott;^[15]
• Ann Wadham, wife of William Montacute, of Henley, Crewkerne;^[16]
• Joan Wadham, first of three wives of Thomas Malet^[17] (died 1502) of Enmore, Deandon and St Audries.^[18]

Monument at Ilminster

Chest tomb of William Wadham (died 1452), Wadham Chapel (north transept), St Mary's Church, Ilminster, looking eastward

Brasses on ledger stone to William Wadham (died 1452) and his mother Joan Wrothesley, St Mary's Church, Ilminster

Rogers (1888) wrote as follows regarding the monument to William Wadham (died 1452):^[19]

The beautiful north transept of Ilminster church may be assigned, we think, with little doubt, to have been erected by the Wadhams, and in it is their earliest memorial. The structure itself is a fine specimen of Perpendicular, and dates about the middle of the fifteenth century. Two large transomed windows occur on each side, and a larger and very handsome one at the end, having a rose of Decorated character in the head. Outside, the walls are supported by panelled buttresses, surmounted by a cornice of finialed panels with shields, the gable being richly crocketted and pinnacled. Within is a finely-carved open-timbered roof. At the intersection of the cross rises one of those fine towers for which Somersetshire is celebrated. In the centre of the transept is a large high tomb, coeval with the foundation of the structure itself. On the sides under the table is a bold string-course of vine tracery, and below a series of canopied niches, now all void of their former occupants. The whole has been repeatedly whitewashed. The cover is a large slab of polished Purbeck marble, (sic, actually granite) and inlet are the figures of a knight and lady under a beautiful canopy. Above the canopy are the indents of shields, and a ledger line surrounds the whole. The effigies are perfect. The knight in early plate armour, with a lion at his feet ; the lady in long gown, mantle, and cover-chief, and a dog with collar and bells at her feet. Below them are eight lines of rhyming Latin. A large portion of the canopy is missing, all the shields, and a considerable length of the ledger line, of which the surviving inscription is as follows:^[20]

North side: ... simul cum Willm'o Wadh'm filio eor'dem (cordem?)... que obiit ... die mensis ... East side: Anno D'ni mill'mo CCCC ... et qui quidem Will'mus ...

The month and year were never engraved on the brass, and the badge of the family, a rose, occurs between the words. From the fragment of the inscription remaining it appears probable that the tomb was erected by Sir John Wadham, who married the heiress of Merefield, to his father, William Wadham, and grandmother, Joan Wriothesley, the wife of the Judge, whom the figures may be supposed to represent; the transept being erected about that time, and adopted as their chantry.

Sources

• Rogers, William Henry Hamilton, Memorials of the West, Historical and Descriptive, Collected on the Borderland of Somerset, Dorset and Devon, Exeter, 1888, pp. 147–173, The Founder and Foundress of Wadham

References

1. Rogers, p.156, regnal date 20 Henry VI; Given by Pole in his list The Sheriffs of Devon since the Conquest as William Woodham
3. Prince, John, (1643–1723) The Worthies of Devon, 1810 edition, biography of Wadham, Sir John, Knight, pp.748–752
4. See, John Wadham, Knight (d.1412); History of Parliament
5. HoP biography
6. Merryfield House, The Gatehouse record
7. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/stourton-john-ii-1400-62
8. Pole, Sir William (died 1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, pp.178,189,208
9. Rogers, 1888, p.156
10. Rogers, 1888, p.156; Pole, p.141
11. History of Parliament biography
12. Pole, p.178
13. Rogers, 1888, p.156
14. Rogers, 1888, p.156
15. Rogers, 1888, p.156
16. Rogers, 1888, p.156
17. Rogers, 1888, p.156
18. Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th Edition, ed. Pirie-Gordon, H., London, 1937, p.1517
19. Rogers, 1888, pp.160–1
20. Rogers, 1888, p.161